Petition delivered to Facebook to let Tibetan voices be heard

ICT President Matteo Mecacci and Care2 Vice President Joe Baker with package containing the petition outside the headquarters of Facebook in Menlo Park, CA, on January 27, 2015.

ICT President Matteo Mecacci and Care2 (a pioneer of online advocacy) Vice President Joe Baker visited the headquarters of Facebook in Menlo Park, CA, on January 27, 2015 and delivered 20,449 signatures on a petition addressed to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the right of Tibetan voices to be heard on the social network forum without any censorship.

The petition stated that on December 26, Tibetan writer and activist Tsering Woeser used her Facebook page to post a report and video of a Buddhist monk’s self-immolation in Tibet. Within hours, Facebook deleted the post because it allegedly violated the social media giant’s “community standards.”

ICT President Matteo Mecacci and Care2 Vice President Joe Baker with package containing the petition in the reception room of the headquarters of Facebook in Menlo Park, CA, on January 27, 2015.

It said what’s actually being violated is Woeser’s freedom of expression and millions of Tibetans’ basic human right to have their suffering known by the world. Censoring the truth about China’s oppression of Tibetans — so severe and pervasive that some see setting themselves on fire as their only way to be heard — is wrong and shameful, the petition maintained.

“The petition was endorsed by more than 20,000 people from over 130 countries and we were able to share with Facebook their feeling that such actions to silence Tibetan voices cannot be tolerated,” said Matteo Mecacci, president of ICT.

The petition package was accepted by a Facebook official who did not make any comments.

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